Jack Kerouac - ``On the Road``

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING AS A PHOTOGRAPHER?
For about 6 years, although sometimes I feel like I lived 20. 🙂

WHY DID YOU START TAKING PICTURES?
I began by chance: years ago I ran a tourist site on the city of Palermo (my hometown) and I needed pictures of the monuments. So I started going around the city to take photographs and then I realized that it was something relaxing for me. A few months later, I was asked to expose my photos in a city event. Since then, I kept shooting with curiosity.

TELL US WHO YOU ARE. WHO IS LUCA CASSARÀ?
Luca is a simple person, like many, who does what he loves with passion: he shoots for himself, to communicate something, to look at himself like in a mirror, for fun even when it’s for work.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO TELL WITH YOUR PHOTOS? Not always there’s a message. Sometimes a picture indirectly tells a lot about myself, or of the subject, or of a specific time in life. Sometimes it’s just about aesthetic: a beautiful photo.

ARE YOU SATISFIED BY WHAT YOU DO? DO YOU THINK YOU’RE REALLY DOING IT THE WAY YOU WANT?
Satisfied? NEVER! I am aware I reached small achievements in recent years, but the road to what I secretly want to achieve is still very long. And I am happy about it, it’s one more reason to try every day to improve myself.

PHOTOGRAPHICALLY SPEAKING, IS YOUR WORLD COLORED OR BLACK AND WHITE? Until recently I would have firmly stated B&W, but recently I started experimenting with colors and trying new paths. Still, I undoubtedly love B&W photography: the absence of color brings to a total minimalism, straight to the essence.

TECHNIQUE, INSTINCT, EQUIPMENT: WHICH PERCENTAGE WOULD YOU ASSIGN IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE?
They all matter: be wary of those who praise or cheapen one factor or another. Technique serves creativity and should never become its cage. Instinct is creativity’s spark but it is wasted energy it the technique gets ignored. The equipment can sometimes make a difference, but without Technique and Creativity only plastic, glass and metal remain.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND ITS SURROUNDINGS?
Like all environments, photography has its positive and negative aspects. You’re constantly in contact with other people, you can compare with them and create bonds, it’s an immense ocean of ideas and cultures. But, like in any ocean, there are sharks as well, you just know how to avoid them. 🙂

WOULD YOU EVER LET A COLLEAGUE TAKE PICTURES OF YOU?
Certainly. It happened to me a few times, and I’m very pleased if, somehow, I can be the instrument for a colleague whom I respect to give shape to his idea.

TELL US A POSITIVE AND A NEGATIVE EXPERIENCE YOU LIVED. There are lots of positive experiences over the years that led me to grow on the photographic and human level. The friendship and affection of many people, which today are fundamental in my life, are among those. Negative… I have always been target of bad gossip and, very often, false rumors. In the beginning it really hurt me, but it also strengthen me, and I learned to laugh about it, ironically repeating to myself “Tot hostes, honorary multum” (TN: “Many enemies, much honor”)

WHAT’S YOUR PHOTOGRAPHIC DREAM? IS THERE A GOAL YOU’D LIKE TO ACHIEVE? Yes, that dream was born during a journey to New York and, from that moment on, I started to seriously commit and try to give my best. Maybe I’ll achieve it when I’ll be 90 years old or even after death… but I won’t say it for luck… hush! 😉

A MODEL YOU DREAM TO SHOOT WITH? There isn’t a specific model, mostly I would give a kidney away if that would allow me shoot the rock idols I love

THE IMPORTANCE OF PRINTING A PICTURE? DOES IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE? It’s somehow related to one of the previous questions: in this whole digital revolution we are totally forgetting the value of printing. I will not start a qualitative comparison between the printed photos and the digital ones, let’s evaluate a purely practical aspect: a CD-ROM, as well as an HardDisk, is guaranteed for decades, if we know how to take care of them, but we need to keep in mind that they are magnetic devices. It’s like writing on sand, it doesn’t take much to make it all vanish. So, no matter how many terabytes you have at home, always print your photos.